Speaker 1: This is a special bonus episode for you.
Speaker 2: This is one of these good problem weeks where we
Speaker 2: have way too much good stuff from big ten media
Speaker 2: days to be able to fit it into our sort
Speaker 2: of traditional publication schedule. So we've got a bunch of
Speaker 2: extra stuff for you this week.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna let.
Speaker 2: You hear a little bit from Matt Campbell on this episode,
Speaker 2: the new head coach at Penn State. He had a
Speaker 2: lot of interesting stuff to say earlier in the week.
Speaker 2: We're gonna start with a couple Ohio State related soundbites
Speaker 2: and then we'll get into some other stuff. We're gonna
Speaker 2: let you hear directly from him because we've talked a
Speaker 2: little bit about what he talked about. But I'll let
Speaker 2: you hear from him get to know him a little
Speaker 2: bit more. Let's start with the first one. He was
Speaker 2: asked about the impact of Jim Tressel on his career,
Speaker 2: the former Ohio State head coach current Ohio lieutenant governor.
Speaker 2: He actually has been a mentor of sorts for Matt
Speaker 2: Campbell over the years and actually played a little bit
Speaker 2: of role in Campbell taking the Penn State job.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would just say Coach Trussel has been a
Speaker 3: huge impact on my journey, really every aspect of my life.
Speaker 3: You know. I can remember we got let go as
Speaker 3: a coach, our coaching staff, and I was an assistant
Speaker 3: coach at Bowling Green and I figured out real quick
Speaker 3: that this is a business. And I had I had
Speaker 3: just accepted a job to go be the offensive line
Speaker 3: coach and run game coordinator at the University of Wyoming,
Speaker 3: and Tim Beckman got the head coaching job at the
Speaker 3: University of Toledo and called and said, Hey, would you
Speaker 3: like to be the offensive coordinator? And I remember calling
Speaker 3: coach Trussell at that point and said, Hey, should I
Speaker 3: move to Wyoming? I think I should do that, And
Speaker 3: you know, he kind of gave me great wisdom sometimes
Speaker 3: out of sight, out of mind, you've been in this footprint,
Speaker 3: you should stay in this footprint. And it was great
Speaker 3: advice then and honestly, every career moved since then. And
Speaker 3: he coached Trustle has been a huge impact on me,
Speaker 3: and he's had a huge impact on my journey and
Speaker 3: a huge impact on my life as a football coach,
Speaker 3: and I'm really grateful for it. And you know, obviously
Speaker 3: had great conversations even about the Penn State job, and
Speaker 3: I really appreciate him for that.
Speaker 2: The Buck guys are not playing Penn State this season.
Speaker 2: But there was another Ohio State connection that Matt Campbell
Speaker 2: got asked about, and that his former Ohio State running.
Speaker 1: Back James Peoples.
Speaker 2: He was someone who started the year for Ohio State
Speaker 2: last year and then up losing his job to Bo
Speaker 2: Jackson and then transferred to Penn State during the offseason.
Speaker 2: So when Matt Campbell was asked about his running back
Speaker 2: room and his running back situation, you're in here James
Speaker 2: Peoples as one of the people he talks about here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I think we're excited to see how that
Speaker 3: unfolds in fall camp. You know, I think there's videotape
Speaker 3: evidence in collegiate football games. Obviously, Carson Hansen has proven
Speaker 3: he can be a bell cow. He's a guy that
Speaker 3: can you know, gets better with every carry, and we
Speaker 3: have great belief in what he's got the ability to do.
Speaker 3: But you see flashes of greatness from James Peoples and
Speaker 3: his opportunity to run the football and make some great plays.
Speaker 3: I think everybody got a chance to see Quinn Martin
Speaker 3: start a game and what he had the ability to
Speaker 3: do do in the bowl game, and I think we're
Speaker 3: really excited. I think all those guys have made strides
Speaker 3: since really the end of spring practice. But the competition
Speaker 3: carries who's on the field and critical moments. I think
Speaker 3: that's all going to be decided as we get ourselves
Speaker 3: into fall camp.
Speaker 2: Now on to some sort of the bigger picture stuff,
Speaker 2: not as Higo State specific in particular, but some interesting
Speaker 2: stuff from Matt Campbell, definitely on his job at Penn
Speaker 2: States and his overall philosophy, all that kind of fun stuff.
Speaker 2: Let's just start with a real, nice, easy one, just
Speaker 2: his message to the team overall for season number one
Speaker 2: in state college.
Speaker 3: I think the first edition of this Penn State football
Speaker 3: team is the standards and expectations that we are setting
Speaker 3: in our football program. How you show up every day,
Speaker 3: what's authentic leadership look like? Our opportunity when adversity hits.
Speaker 3: How do we stay together through positive adversity and negative adversity?
Speaker 3: Can we grow in those areas? I still believe when
Speaker 3: you master that, the results have always taken care of themselves.
Speaker 3: But that's really the foundation of the growth that we
Speaker 3: need to make this ball for.
Speaker 1: Years and years and years.
Speaker 2: Matt Campbell and his defensive coordinator John Haycock at Iowa
Speaker 2: State were known for running a somewhat unique three three
Speaker 2: five scheme on defense. Haycock has retired, so he's no
Speaker 2: longer there. He did not make the move over to
Speaker 2: Penn State with Campbell, and neither did the three three five.
Speaker 2: So why did he end up deciding to go away
Speaker 2: from what has sort of become his team signature defense.
Speaker 3: Well, I think the biggest challenge with the three three
Speaker 3: five is when you pay take that safety position, that's
Speaker 3: the middle safety, and you pull that guy away from
Speaker 3: the line of scrimmage, and there's pluses and minuses to that.
Speaker 3: The plus is you know, obviously how you fit the
Speaker 3: run game, how you can disguise coverages, and the multiplicity
Speaker 3: of disguises that you can add to the value of
Speaker 3: the cover system. Obviously, the challenge can be sometimes in
Speaker 3: the running game when you're gonna add multiple gaps and man,
Speaker 3: can I get enough guys down in the box to
Speaker 3: be able to stop the runs. So you know, there's
Speaker 3: great pluses and minuses with it. It's a great system
Speaker 3: if you have the right pieces.
Speaker 2: Campbell has been the head coach at Toledo and then
Speaker 2: at Iowa State and has been successful in both places.
Speaker 2: But this talent, the challenge of stepping up to Penn State,
Speaker 2: that is going to be a different, different kind of
Speaker 2: challenge for Campbell. Winning at Iowa State that was difficult.
Speaker 2: Winning to the standards of Penn State fans that will
Speaker 2: prove to be a different kind of difficult. So what
Speaker 2: is the challenge of stepping up in terms of recruiting
Speaker 2: expectations going from Iowa State to Penn State.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just think truly understanding the landscape that we're
Speaker 3: in in terms of recruiting, in terms of, you know,
Speaker 3: the build of what it takes to sustain success in
Speaker 3: this league. But I would also say, you know, are
Speaker 3: background at being at Iowa State, my background playing at
Speaker 3: Mount Union. Understanding what those expectations look like and what
Speaker 3: it means to lead in the coach and the play
Speaker 3: in those expectations, I think are huge pieces of that
Speaker 3: have traveled with us at every stop that we've had
Speaker 3: that I think have prepared us for this moment and
Speaker 3: this opportunity here at Penn State.
Speaker 2: One of the things that's a challenge for every college
Speaker 2: football coach these days is the challenge of adapting to
Speaker 2: the modern realities of college football. And when Matt Campbell
Speaker 2: started his head coaching career, it was a very different
Speaker 2: world for college football coaches than it is now. Whether
Speaker 2: you're talking about transporportal, nil, all.
Speaker 1: The stuff going through Congress right now.
Speaker 2: What is it like trying to adapt to the modern
Speaker 2: realities of college football.
Speaker 3: Being a head football coach and growing. It's like you
Speaker 3: always say, as an offensive coordinator or a quarterback, you know,
Speaker 3: man experiences the greatest teacher. And I think if you
Speaker 3: have enough humility and curiosity, humility to understand where you've
Speaker 3: gone wrong, and believe me, I think you make a
Speaker 3: lot of mistakes in the journey of coaching every year
Speaker 3: and have the ability to reflect and grow and not
Speaker 3: make the same mistake twice. And then I think have
Speaker 3: enough curiosity to figure out where your gaps and how
Speaker 3: do you demand to move forward? And you know, I
Speaker 3: do think the stage of power for football, the dynamics
Speaker 3: have shifted dramatically over the last three years. And if
Speaker 3: you aren't adjusting, if you're not adapting, if you're not growing,
Speaker 3: then I think you're going to get left behind. And
Speaker 3: so I think it's been critically important to have the
Speaker 3: ability to be able to adjust. And I guess maybe
Speaker 3: that fabrics gives you the most confidence that saying, you know,
Speaker 3: I'm not naive to what the challenges are from player
Speaker 3: retention to player acquisition to program development at this level
Speaker 3: and what it takes to sustain success at this level.
Speaker 2: Every time a coach moves to a new school, they
Speaker 2: talk about bringing their own culture and implementing their own
Speaker 2: culture on the program. And this wasn't really answer for
Speaker 2: Matt Campbell because I made it sound like, Eh, it's
Speaker 2: not that simple to just sort of imprint your own
Speaker 2: culture on your new program.
Speaker 3: Yeah, talking about the twenty seven recruiting class, and you know,
Speaker 3: I would just say holistically, and I think maybe the
Speaker 3: question and maybe you were there in the spring or not,
Speaker 3: And my response was, we're going to take it slow
Speaker 3: and right. And I think the biggest mistake that we
Speaker 3: can make because we're still playing catch up in this class, right,
Speaker 3: You're you're playing ketchup in relationship, you're playing catch up
Speaker 3: and evaluation, and the biggest mistake we can make is
Speaker 3: taking the wrong fit, taking the wrong fit, characteristically, taking
Speaker 3: the wrong fit, and this player doesn't fit our system,
Speaker 3: and so I think that when you only have one
Speaker 3: hundred and five men under your roster, man aligning the
Speaker 3: football roster and finding the right fit is critically important.
Speaker 3: And I would say probably there is a general sense
Speaker 3: of confidence that we trust our evaluation, we trust our
Speaker 3: process of building team, and we're I think, really confident
Speaker 3: about where that high school class is as we kind
Speaker 3: of head into the fall, and I think we're going
Speaker 3: to learn a lot more about our own roster, to
Speaker 3: be quite honest with you, as we get into the
Speaker 3: fall for that twenty seven team. I think that's the
Speaker 3: unique challenge that I feel like we're under is finding
Speaker 3: out a little bit more about our own roster. We
Speaker 3: know what our twenty six team looks like, we know
Speaker 3: what the older guys in our twenty six program look like.
Speaker 3: But trying to uncover more about what this twenty seven
Speaker 3: team looks like with our own roster probably is more
Speaker 3: of the unique challenge to the twenty seven high school
Speaker 3: recruiting and then end up being the high school transfer
Speaker 3: portal class or the transfer portal recruiting class. So I
Speaker 3: think we'll learn a lot more about ourselves as we
Speaker 3: get through the fall.
Speaker 2: And finally lots of recruiting questions for Matt Campbell because
Speaker 2: penn State not necessarily where they're ultimately going to need
Speaker 2: to be.
Speaker 1: They are twenty third in the nation right now.
Speaker 2: Obviously it is just July, the class is not anywhere
Speaker 2: close to sign and so plenty of time there. But
Speaker 2: of the top twenty players in the state of Pennsylvania
Speaker 2: according to two four to seven, only one of them
Speaker 2: one of the top twenty in Pennsylvania currently committed to
Speaker 2: penn State. That is probably not going to ultimately be
Speaker 2: a winning formula for Matt Campbell.
Speaker 1: So are they already? Are they behind? Are they? Are
Speaker 1: they fallen behind already? In twenty twenty seven?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I would say the biggest thing is you.
Speaker 3: And again I've only done this. You know, I got
Speaker 3: the Toledo job and I was thirty one and I
Speaker 3: was the offensive coordinator, and so you know, it was
Speaker 3: trial and error, and you know, when you went from
Speaker 3: Toledo to Iowa State, I think I learned a really
Speaker 3: great value that you just don't go into a program
Speaker 3: and you assume, hey, I'm just going to bring this
Speaker 3: over and this is copy and paste. You know, I
Speaker 3: really learned at that stage. Task questions what's going on here,
Speaker 3: what's gone well, what hasn't gone well? If you're the
Speaker 3: head coach, what changes would you make for the betterment
Speaker 3: of the program, whether that's the players or the coaches
Speaker 3: that are outgoing, or the people that surround and touch
Speaker 3: the program. And I think that really served me well
Speaker 3: going into this Penn State job. You know, yes, there's
Speaker 3: some moral fabrics and fibers that I truly believe in
Speaker 3: what it takes to win and be successful in a
Speaker 3: football program and not wavering from that, But I also
Speaker 3: think it's critically important to understand what has going on,
Speaker 3: what are the good things that have happened, and obviously
Speaker 3: there are good things that have happened to Penn State.
Speaker 3: What are the areas that you know, maybe are not
Speaker 3: where they want to be or where they need to be?
Speaker 3: And then how do you devise a plan and a
Speaker 3: process around that to start to maximize the full potential
Speaker 3: and grow the program forward at the rate of speed
Speaker 3: that you want the program to grow forward in. And
Speaker 3: you know, I think that's probably the biggest learning experience,
Speaker 3: you know, during my career with a transition and a
Speaker 3: change and We've really tried to lean into that value,
Speaker 3: not having the ego and entitlement to say, man, I
Speaker 3: have all the answers.
Speaker 1: So there you go.
Speaker 2: A little bit from new Penn State head coach Matt Campbell.
Speaker 2: Really interest some interesting stuff there. He is not quite
Speaker 2: as I don't know, engaging verbose as former Penn State
Speaker 2: head coach James Franklin, but definitely some interesting stuff there.
Speaker 2: Penn State not on the Ohio State schedule this year,
Speaker 2: so you will probably this will be one of the
Speaker 2: last times you hear from him, at least for a
Speaker 2: little while, but should be an interesting season one for
Speaker 2: Matt Campbell in state college. With the Penn State Nitney lyons,
Speaker 2: we'll have much more coverage coming up for you all
Speaker 2: week long.
Speaker 1: From here in Chicago.
Speaker 2: Let you hear from a bunch of different high profile coaches,
Speaker 2: and of course we'll have coverage of all of this
Speaker 2: stuff from Ohio State, all this stuff Michigan, all the
Speaker 2: stuff you've come to know and love from us at
Speaker 2: Buckeye Insiders dot com.
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Speaker 2: guys all for joining us. We'll talk to you next time.